SpaceX has conducted the important static fire of the Falcon 9 rocket that will be tasked with lofting the secretive Zuma payload to Low Earth Orbit next Wednesday. The static fire occurred at the opening of the window at the Kennedy Space Center at 18:00 EST (23:00 UTC). Meanwhile, a Merlin 1D test stand failure at McGregor, Texas, poses no issue to SpaceX’s ongoing acceptance testing of the Block 5 Merlin 1D engine or to the company’s launch manifest.

Static Fire:

As is always the case in the days leading to a scheduled launch, SpaceX static fires their Falcon 9 rocket, with this one working towards the launch of the Zuma payload next Wednesday.

In preparation for the static fire, the Falcon 9 first and second stages were mated together in the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) just outside the pad perimeter gate of LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center before the entire rocket was then mated to the Transporter/Erector/Launcher (TEL) and reaction frame.

(NOTE: NASA has not publically announced the approval of flight proven Falcon 9 boosters for CRS missions, but sources insist a positive decision has been made.)

For Saturday’s static fire, Falcon 9 was transported to the launch pad and erected over the flame trench of Pad 39A, where it was then connected to all electrical, data, and propellant loading equipment.

The launch team undertook an actual countdown – complete with full propellant loading of RP-1 kerosene and LOX (liquid oxygen) into both the first and second stages of the Falcon 9 and lighting of all nine Merlin 1D engines for approximately 3.5 seconds while keeping the hold down clamps firmly attached to the rocket.

Once the static fire was complete, the engines were shut down and the vehicle placed into a safe configuration before detanking, afterwhich Falcon 9 and the TEL will be lowered to horizontal and taken back into the HIF where the rocket will be mated with its secret payload.

At the same time, engineers will review all data from the static fire – which will be used at the L-2 Launch Readiness Review (LRR) to clear Falcon 9 for flight.

Liftoff of Falcon 9 with Zuma is currently set for Wednesday, 15 November 2017 in a two hour launch window from 20:00-22:00 EST – 01:00-03:00 UTC on 16 November.

As the investigation continues, SpaceX is in the process of repairing the test stand – a repair timeline that is expected to result in the stand being back online in a couple weeks.

Moreover, a co-located second Merlin 1D test stand is understood to have only received minor damage at best, with its repairs only taking a few days.

Also quite important is the fact that this was a ground and test stand issue and not an engine failure similar to other failures on the test stand – which means there is no effect on the SpaceX manifest that has established a steady cadence and rhythm to its launches this year.

As of writing, SpaceX’s end of year manifest still has three Falcon 9 missions and one Falcon Heavy mission, with a manifest as follows:

Date

Launch time

Rocket

Mission

Pad / Location

Nov. 15

20:00 EST

Falcon 9

Zuma

LC-39A / KSC

Dec. 4

14:52 EST

Falcon 9

CRS-13/Dragon

SLC-40 / CCAFS

Dec. 22

17:26 PST

Falcon 9

Iridium NEXT-4

SLC-4E / Vandenberg

~NET Dec. 29

TBA

Falcon Heavy

FH demo/debut

LC-39A / KSC

For these missions, Zuma will use a brand new Falcon 9 core, B1043 – which will perform a RTLS (Return To Launch Site) landing on LZ-1 after launch.